


Debating Devils

by BoundlessAether



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Addiction, Alternate Canon, Cigarettes, Drug Use, Enemies to Friends, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Midgar (Compilation of FFVII), Post-Meteorfall (Compilation of FFVII), Pre-Slash, Self-Hatred, Slash, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:48:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25733821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BoundlessAether/pseuds/BoundlessAether
Summary: [postgame] The planet changed after Meteorfall. Cloud struggles changing alongside it. Reno is unsure he can, or wants to. CloudxReno.
Relationships: Reno/Cloud Strife
Comments: 14
Kudos: 20





	Debating Devils

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reno is on cleanup duty.

_There's a war inside my head_

_I'm drowning in regret_

_When the lights come down_

_Got an empty crown_

**_Empty Crown, Yas_ **

. . . . .

. . . . .

. . . . .

Reno laughs so hard, he cries. 

The irony of the mission chokes him in acid and hysterical mirth. 

Tseng watches his lieutenant with dark unreadable eyes. His face is still, almost tranquil, from how the ambient glow of a monitor gently casts over him in the dim office. Reno stood opposite in the shadows. 

“Orders from the top.” 

“ _Orders from the top._ ” Reno mocks with bite. 

“Will there be any issues.” Tseng says, uncompromising. 

Reno’s laughter flickers and dies his throat. He seems to dwell for an answer. 

“Nah,” he dries his face with a palm, then focused on the floor, “I’m good.”

.

.

.

Within days after Meteorfall, Rufus ShinRa made declarations.

Says the one thing no breathing soul on Gaia expected. 

_“ShinRa owes the world a debt.”_

There had been ramifications to his actions, to the late President's actions. He takes responsibility for the abuse of mako resources, the experiments under Hojo, Sephiroth… the list couldn’t end in one speech. 

He directs gratification towards Cloud Strife and his friends, whom with their selfless acts and strong wills, have opened his eyes. That in the end the only thing to do was the right thing, and Rufus folded to assist in ways he could. 

Rufus has a lyrical cadence, a gift he was born with, and sharpened throughout his troubled aristocratic youth. For all the wrath his last name harkened, it soothes the hurt people. 

Reno watched this happen. He stood behind the President alongside Tseng, Rude and Elena atop a meteor-scorched platform, as Rufus' presence flowed through a network of remaining speakers. The shouting sea of people beneath him grew quiet. It astounded him every time, how the president could seamlessly turn liberator to executioner with the same smile.

Rufus was a breed that thinks differently than the masses; he was at least three Tsengs’ worth of calculating power, though at least had a personality. Reno’s instinct tells him his boss is striking while the iron is hot.

The people are distrustful, weary, frightened and every bit as ready to grasp on a sliver of hope. 

Vulnerability breeds unconditional loyalty to a saviour. Rufus plays this well.

It’s how he inherited the Turks.

  
  
.

.

.

The first of Rufus’ commandments is to provide closure to families who lost loved ones, to rectify the estranged relations ShinRa has with the public. 

Reno has the unenviable task to take inventory of the sector seven victims. He left Tsengs office with his dick in a knot.

The responsibility falls on him to regather remains and alongside the forensics team, they’d cross reference identity markers within the security cache used on the sector trains. It was a good fortune ShinRa backup servers weren’t lost. 

The smell of alcohol in Reno’s breath thinly hides how acrid the slum stench is, despite wearing a ventilator. 

He looks like a regal animal of prey, perched on a high vantage point atop remains of a folded street. Sharp turquoise eyes chart the hellscape to memory while ShinRa ants assembled down below. 

He maps points of interest, such as high risk, flimsy overhanging debris yielding to collapse, potential monster nests that often took sanctuary within spacious nooks, and lower dense areas where they could start carving out pathways. Mentally cross-referencing with sewer schematics, he notes they’d need to clear out entrances to utilize underground tunnels as a first priority.

He glossed over peppered limbs and bodies recklessly decaying over the gravesite. 

He stands up, taking another lingering look at the weariness of Midgar. With a graceful front flip he’s back on the ground with a poise of a cat perfectly landing on its feet. The stunt leaves a couple nearby subordinates breathless. 

One of his officers supplements him with a top view map from sector 7s glory days. Reno tells him to burn it. 

Nothing here was recognizable anymore. Topside homes collided with makeshift slum walls of wood and metal sheets, streetlamps and highways crumpled over playgrounds, vehicles and pipes clog remnants of hospital buildings and businesses - like tipping over a plate of fresh pasta, it all slithered down into a congealed mess. 

Two worlds, glued by human remains.

The ventilator hides how hard Reno swallows a distracting burn at his core. 

With a veneer of coolness, he delegates his team. The process of redemption begins.

.

.

.

Reno jolts, like a cramp screaming you awake from a dream.

His heart is pounding and he’s sweating bullets. Covers his mouth from a fit of coughs from the putrid air. He isn’t wearing his ventilator. His eyes dart the surroundings. 

The ShinRa team was nowhere to be seen. His stiff joints lock him like a statue in the middle of polluted fog, surrounded by the towering jury of wreckage he mapped moments ago. 

Sore, disorientated, and far too sober, he whipped out his PHS to bitch at Tseng over his missing squad of lazy fucks. 

A wall of notifications disarms him; three missed calls from Rude, four from Elena with a barrage of texts he can’t bother to count, and one voicemail from Tseng. A low battery icon flickers on the screen corner. He dials Rude. 

“No one could get a hold of you,” Rude presses against his ear, “where were you?”

Reno palmed the back of his neck, straining his memory for straws, letting his partner's words sink in. The sky hints at dim morning rays choked out by Midgars dust; sunrise colours breaking into dawn..

He never went home. 

He’s more irritated with inconvenience; he hasn't even taken a shower.

Rude weighs the silence, repeating with concern. Reno’s nerves are brittle when he doesn’t have answers, even more so when there’s no desire to uncover it. So he replies with the edge of a pestered cobra.

“Fuck, hell if I know," a toothy grin drawls into the PHS, then thumbing though Elena’s demanding texts, “got blackout drunk. Don’t sweat it, man.”

The silence is a standoff. Reno can hear Rude thinking and it cracks the remaining bits of mental fortitude. 

He stares at the speakerphone, biting his tongue. 

The screen blinks to black. The battery died. 

When they rendezvous later, he doesn’t talk about it. 

There’s a job to do.

.

.

.

**Author's Note:**

> Really wanted to put somethin' up on Clouds bday. :-D Haven't written anything for the best of a decade; grammar is definitely a weakness, tear me a new asshole if you see anything that doesn't read well. I struggled with info dumping quite a bit, first iterations felt like a massive play by play so hopefully this reads engaging enough. Given how open ended Remake is... takin' some creative liberties with the state of Midgar after meteor hits so I can have some flexibility; I don't intend to include Advent Children or have events leading up to it, though I have an idea where this could go from here. Rated for self destructive habits (harm, drugs, etc.), sexual themes, language... If I had _my_ way there'd be some gud ol' smut everywhere but alas, depends on the boys. Additional tags will be added along the way. Thanks for readin' <3 (edits to spelling and tweaks later)


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